Thursday, May 10, 2012

To say that World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE for short, does
not exactly portray the healthiest forms of masculinity and femininity might be
an understatement. To be fair, my encounters with the show have more to do with
the sheer inescapability of it, and those encounters have not done much to
change my mind. It’s either playing or recording on every TV in my house, and I
dare not ask to be excused to eat in another room or make a peep until
commercials are on. I am resigned to sit silently, staring at a wall or my
dinner plate—desperately looking for anything to look at but the TV. But sometimes
I can’t help but watch – with jaw dropped – some of the antics. Recently one
such segment aired in which a Dr. Phil-esque session was attempted in the ring.
The “mediation” was supposed to happen between a wrestler, Daniel Bryan, and
his new ex, AJ Lee, facilitated by Roddy Piper.

Basically, in an earlier episode Daniel Bryan publicly broke
up with AJ – in a more intimidating than tactful way. In this episode, Roddy
Piper invites both parties to the ring for a discussion. When AJ enters the
ring, she and Roddy Piper engage in conversation about Daniel Bryan, with AJ
standing up for Daniel Bryan, who “really is a good person”. After a few
minutes, Bryan has heard enough and orders AJ to leave the ring as a testament
to her love for him. To Roddy Piper’s, and my dismay, she obeys and Bryan is
left gloating this “victory” in the ring.

Our entire dinner table became very quiet and tense. My
mother and I stared at each other awestruck.My mother and I always like to have deep conversations about things in
regular life, take the situation apart, play devil’s advocate, and examine it
from all sides. This sparked one of those conversations. I’m known in my family
as hotheaded and I was furious. I saw this segment as having promoted, if not
instilled, a tolerance and acceptance of domestic and relationship violence. My
little brother has been watching this show since he was a young child (I had
NOTHING to do with that…), and I have seen how an impressionable age and this
show can result in confusion about masculinity and the acceptance of violence
in daily life. I wondered how many young children, and even impressionable
older people, were watching this and as a result would incorporate that kind of
behavior into their interpersonal or relationship schemas; this was dangerous
stuff.

I was glad my mother agreed, but when we took the situation
a little further we came to a new conclusion. What if this segment was the
exact opposite of what we thought? Perhaps the writers were trying to shed
light on relationship violence. The clip from the breakup could have been
purposefully written in such an upsetting way that it generates sympathy for
AJ, and thus grabs the emotion of all viewers, impressionable and otherwise. It
then makes sense why WWE would create AJ as a timid young character who does
not fit the general mold of the bolder WWE woman. For a bolder character, viewers
may feel that she can protect herself and would not feel for her so readily
(not to say bold women, or men for that matter, should be less felt for or
sympathized with), but they may feel less tenderness and protectiveness towards
the bolder character than the girlish and stereotypically feminine character AJ
plays. In the Roddy Piper mediation, to see that AJ’s boldest moments are those
in which she is standing up for Daniel Bryan, and to then have Bryan again
demean her and gloat could be purposefully done to generate more hate for
Daniel Bryan and more sympathy for AJ, and victims of domestic abuse
everywhere.

Does this mean that WWE was trying to shed light on the
horror of relationship violence, especially that of emotional abuse? Physical
abuse has been thrust into collective consciousness through media coverage of
cases such as that of Chris Brown and Rihanna, but emotional abuse has until now
been a little less exposed though it is also extremely dangerous. But how clear
was this message, if that was indeed the intent, and would the majority of
viewers understand? Maybe it worked; I was seething with rage towards Daniel
Bryan, more so than I was towards WWE for showing it (or promoting it as I
initially believed). Maybe WWE’s intentions were good…or maybe my mother and I
are just clinging to hope.

Take
a look at the clip above and tell me what you think. Do
you think this had a pure intent, or was a bad judgment call…or maybe both?

Hi
everyone, my name is Hope and I am an intern here at Men Can Stop Rape! I am
from Beltsville, Maryland and am currently a graduating senior at the wonderful
University of Maryland, College Park. I am majoring in Criminology and Criminal
Justice and plan on going to law school.

4 comments:

Haven't watched the clip yet, so don't know if you showed this too, but it's not in the text of your article: in defense of WWE, and Roddy Piper, and even the person Bryan Danielson who took part in it(as opposed to the character Daniel Bryan) the segment doesn't end there, and the rest of the segment is very in line with the message of MCSR.